A committee of Congress has laid down the gauntlet for the fight to slow global warming. We hear the pros and cons of a bill that would revolutionize energy use and change the lives of Americans. Also, GM on a collision course with bankruptcy, and Sonia Sotomayor, Nancy Drew and Perry Mason.

FROM THIS EPISODE

A committee of Congress has laid down the gauntlet for the fight to slow global warming. We hear the pros and cons of a bill that would revolutionize energy use and change the lives of Americans. Also, GM on a collision course with bankruptcy. On Reporter's Notebook, the President’s first choice for the US Supreme Court was motivated by popular culture. We hear about the girls’ books and television shows that shaped the career of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

General Motors is closer than ever to bankruptcy. It needed 90% of its investors to exchange debt for shares in the company in order to qualify for fed money. GM announced today that it had failed to meet that threshold. David Welch is Detroit Bureau Chief for BusinessWeek magazine.

President Obama says the battle to slow global warming will be good for the US economy. He wants an energy policy in time for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this coming December. A House committee has passed a sweeping 932-page bill that would re-engineer the production of energy and change the economic behavior of every American. It's expensive, and complicated enough to address the concerns of innumerable interest groups. But some environmentalists warn it's too little, too late. Some conservatives argue it's not worth the effort. The debate will go on for at least the rest of this year. We hear the beginning.

When Judge Sonia Sotomayor faces the Senate Judiciary Committee, Nancy Drew is unlikely to be on the agenda. But President Obama mentioned her yesterday when he announced his first Supreme Court nomination. What the President didn't say was that Sonia Sotomayor switched her interest — and her ambitions — from Nancy Drew to Perry Mason. Roger Catlin is TV critic for the Hartford Courant.